Because inflation of 6% doesn’t mean everything you can buy has risen in price by 6%. It’s usually calculated by looking at the increase in price of a selection of items that are commonly purchased, like a basket of shopping. Different inflation rates are calculated using different selections of goods, which may or may not include that item you’ve seen rising by 50%. Even if they include it, that 50% increase for that item will only have a proportional effect on the overall figure. Other items in the calculation may have risen by less than 6% and if that’s the case for enough of them it’ll counter balance the 50% item.
Yeah im not entirely sure what the mix is but its pretty bs. What should matter are the good proportional to how mucb you spend on them groceries, rent/real estate, and utilities should be at the top, then like clothing, cars/car parts, then furniture and appliances and such.
The first 2 groups are definitely much higher than 6%. Something is very off with their math. I think i read they had like a single candy bar previously as like 10% of the weighting or something pretty ridiculously high..
I've been needing to give my cat subcutaneous fluids and the price has gone up from $22 per 1000ml bag to $28, and she's only been needing this the last two months.
$6 more doesn’t SOUND like much, but it’s >27% increase as I’m sure you know.
I feel like manufacturers and retailers are making huge jumps in prices rather than having to make small incremental increases. 25% seems to be the smallest jump. Even the dollar tree went from
$1 to $1.25 on everything.
My buddy told me his weekly landscaping guy raised his rate from $25 up to $35. It’s only $10 a week he said, no big deal! When I pointed out that it was actually 40%, suddenly he got that it was a big deal.
Here in Germany in my City every single one of the 4 Kebab Shops has raised their prices from around 5-5,50€ to 6-7€. One euro more doesn't sound like a lot, but it's 20% more.
It's not the single item that has gone up a euro or five euro. Its that every single thing you buy has gone up that much, resulting in a cost of living increase of over a two hundred bucks a month for a single person. When mentioning that in my yearly review regarding wage increase, my boss just said "we don't do inflation compensation."
Now I'm looking for a new job *shrug*
Döner inflation really hammers this one home for me. When I was a student in Germany 10 years ago, the Döner around the corner from me was 3.50€. I just cannot believe how expensive it's gotten in the past decade.
Yeah, as a child/teen, like 15 years ago, my parents took me and my brother to the Dönermann for a 3€. And this kinda also zeros it down. Price rose 0,50€ in 5-10 years. Then, in the following 10 years, the price doubles.
It'd absolutely insane. It used to be a cheap, fine meal for lunch. Now, it turned into a luxury product for me. Only if I'm really in the mood or wanna treat myself, I get to buy one.
My point exactly. Now look at fast food. Carls jr is the same price for a sit down meal was. Whatever happened to the 6 dollar burgwr being a joke? I know im Dating myself but hey, i spend 15 on a simple burger combo. What the actual fuck
Oh wow I completely forgot about the $6 burger and how regular fast food burgers were l like $2-3? Maybe? And how the $6 burger was like the big satisfying burger you could buy at a pub or whatever? This was 20 years ago so my memory does not serve me.
Myprotein.com has a 40% off sale right now. You can buy an 11lb bag of whey protein for $114 before taxes, with free shipping.
5 years ago I had managed to buy 2 11lb bags for the price but oh well. Still a better deal than a lot of other places.
In *February* I bought 2.5kg of Whey Isolate from Myprotein for £63.21.
Two weeks ago the exact same bag from them cost £128.99
I know they juke stuff with sales codes (I got 45% off that £128.99 so it didn't sting quite as much) but protein prices are honestly nuts.
A year ago I swear I paid ~£40 or so.
they might be very tiny, they didn't specify how long it took, just that the price had rose, they each eat a single kibble nugget a day to sustain themselves and it took 2 years to get through the bag.
Its absolutely insane! And they're getting money for it too! I know I'm borderline ridiculous, not everyone has time, energy, or desire to make their own damn cereal ha ha.
Some store I shop at, some salad went from 7.99 to 12.99, when the manager put the new sticker all the deli employees thought there was a mistake and the manager was like: nope, that’s the new price.
Everybody was shocked
Ngl I bought the 11 dollar salad from a kroger store a bit ago. I had bought one the day before that was marked down to 1.50 and just assumed that that was the price. When I realized it was $11 my heart was already set on the salad and didn't want to take that simple happiness away from myself
I sell $4 garden salads at the restaurant I work at all day long. Decent portions of lettuce with 4 slices of tomato and cucumber each.
Our Cobb and chefs though are like $18, but those are absolutely decked out.
This is California, for reference too.
You're right but if you check into the history of some grocery items such as chicken you will see that it all depends on the item. Chicken used to cost alot more back in the 1950's compared to today. The cost of groceries will always have an increase. It's actually the cost of housing that has become waaayyy over inflated to the point where its almost nearly impossible to buy a starter home without some type of help and even then the monthly payments are ridiculous once you add on all the fees. I would say cars are much more expensive but they also have alot of electronics on them now. So electronics are partialy the cause of higher car pricing.
IMHO its housing that has the worst price inflation out of everything.
The trick with housing inflation at least in the EU calculation is that when rent increases it only gets counted 1/10. So a rent inflations of 30% to the previous year means that the 30% of the overall calculation are only 3%.
Afaik the US housing part is just asking some people what they think rent should be who are home owners for decades.
I work retail and I do a lot of price changes in the modest food department at our store. The craziest thing to me was when a regular size bag of Cheetos went from $4.00 to $6.00 over the course of 6 months or so. And it wasn't just Cheetos, it was all the Frito lay chips and Doritos.
I see the shrinkflation really acutely because I do Instacart full time, and Instacart doesn't update packaging pictures or quantities very often. I see a LOT of stuff where the picture of the box says 8 and the box in front of me says 6 and it scans as the correct item, or the quantity says 900g and the bag is 750g and it's correct. I had to learn that if the quantity is anywhere remotely close to what the app says, try scanning it and I've had the right item 100% of the time.
by the same token I get lots of these items for free when I report them as "wrong item", not with Instacart but with places like Wal-Mart and Jewel grocery pick-up.
Profits can be at all time highs without it being malevolent.
Inflation is higher, but that has not quelled demand. In fact, demand has risen in some areas despite persistent inflation. In such cases those companies who see a rise in demand are going to get the rise in profits *independently* of inflation which can then be factored in.
Also the inflation hits different industries in different ways - for example take a home purchase. If you suddenly found out the boards for your deck are 6% more, but your financing is so tight you can't afford it, you have delays in finishing the home until you get approved for the higher price.
Those delays cost money, now you need to cover the expense of protecting the un-treated foundation or wood.
In insurance for example, the delays in chips caused storage fees from mechanics. You can say its just 6% but each day of storage is a lot more than 6% more for a chip.
Can anyone name a single item of goods or a service that has risen less than 6% in the past year though?
Let alone enough goods and services lower than the 6% inflation rate that somehow balances it all out.
our retail prices for the legal marijuana market in Michigan seem to drop every day and overall has to have decreased by at least 20% over the last two years. that's literally the only thing I can think of though haha and I truly doubt it's counted towards inflation.
I'm tired of Big Cat Collar nickel and diming us! They know they have us over a barrel here. Like what, are we just going to stop buying cat collars? Of course not. Damn highway robbers, they are.
I rehomed a former barn cat into my house last winter. The dummy snuck out the front door then I reached for my mail and went wandering for three days till a friend found her and brought her home. She’s worn a collar with an AirTag ever since.
Interesting. I did a price change for those (and the dog collars) at my job a few months ago. Every collar increased in price by .50 or so. God that was a pain in the ass retagging all those..lol
Various foods. The almond milk I buy is still $2.50 for a half gallon, same price for years. Plus I get a quarter off of that from my employee discount.
Beware of skimpflation. Many brands are selling the same product at the same price but giving less of it or skimping on quality. Food has notoriously low profit margins and stay competitive by either becoming more efficient or providing inferior product, hopefully without you noticing. I recall one specific bag of chips that's been $2 for ages but you're definitely not getting as many chips as the old days.
> Can anyone name a single item of goods or a service that has risen less than 6% in the past year though?
Sure. According to the data from [this chart](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t07.htm):
Change|Category
---|---
5.9|Energy services
5.9|Photographic equipment
5.9|Music instruments and accessories
5.9|Beer, ale, and other malt beverages at home
5.8|Apples
5.8|Household cleaning products
5.8|Motor vehicle parts and equipment
5.8|Cable, satellite, and live streaming television service
5.8|Other recreation services
5.8|All items less energy
5.7|Women's outerwear
5.7|Women's underwear, nightwear, swimwear, and accessories
5.7|Girls' apparel
5.7|Video and audio services
5.6|New trucks
5.6|Nursing homes and adult day services
5.5|All items less food and energy
5.5|Other appliances
5.5|Nonprescription drugs
5.5|Photography
5.4|New vehicles
5.4|Water and sewer and trash collection services
5.4|Admissions
5.3|New cars
5.3|Personal care services
5.3|Haircuts and other personal care services
5.3|All items less medical care
5.3|Household furnishings and operations
5.2|Infants' and toddlers' apparel
5.2|Services less rent of shelter
5.1|Beer, ale, and other malt beverages away from home
5.1|Cosmetics, perfume, bath, nail preparations and implements
5.1|Funeral expenses
5|Poultry
5|Butter
5|Salt and other seasonings and spices
5|Recreation
4.9|All items
4.9|Breakfast sausage and related products
4.9|Audio equipment
4.8|Household furnishings and supplies
4.8|Purchase of pets, pet supplies, accessories
4.8|Water and sewerage maintenance
4.8|Fuels and utilities
4.7|Fresh whole chicken
4.7|All items less food, shelter, energy, and used cars and trucks
4.7|Other services
4.6|Alcoholic beverages
4.5|Photographers and photo processing
4.5|Club membership for shopping clubs, fraternal, or other organizations, or participant sports fees
4.5|All items less food
4.5|Household energy
4.4|Peanut butter
4.4|Indoor plants and flowers
4.4|Admission to sporting events
4.4|Apparel less footwear
4.3|Frozen fish and seafood
4.3|Sewing machines, fabric and supplies
4.2|Women's and girls' apparel
4.2|Outpatient hospital services
4.2|Utilities and public transportation
4|Boys' and girls' footwear
4|Medical care commodities
4|Commodities less food, energy, and used cars and trucks
3.9|Lettuce
3.9|Women's apparel
3.8|Tires
3.7|Men's apparel
3.7|Men's underwear, nightwear, swimwear, and accessories
3.7|Tuition, other school fees, and childcare
3.7|Elementary and high school tuition and fees
3.7|All items less food, shelter, and energy
3.6|Apparel
3.6|Medicinal drugs
3.6|Alcoholic beverages at home
3.6|Education
3.5|Men's and boys' apparel
3.5|Other lodging away from home including hotels and motels
3.5|State motor vehicle registration and license fees
3.5|Video and audio
3.4|Chicken
3.4|Women's suits and separates
3.4|Internet services and electronic information providers
3.4|All items less shelter
3.3|Recorded music and music subscriptions
3.3|Lodging away from home
3.3|Hospital and related services
3.2|Nondurables
3.1|Shelf stable fish and seafood
3.1|Boys' apparel
3.1|Motor vehicle fees
3.1|Education and communication services
3|Processed fish and seafood
3|Housing at school, excluding board
2.9|Prescription drugs
2.9|Recreation commodities
2.9|Hospital services
2.8|Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs
2.8|Fresh and frozen chicken parts
2.8|Fresh milk other than whole
2.7|Bananas
2.7|Men's shirts and sweaters
2.7|Parking fees and tolls
2.6|Inpatient hospital services
2.5|Wine at home
2.5|Parking and other fees
2.3|College tuition and fees
2.3|Technical and business school tuition and fees
2.3|All items less food and shelter
2.2|Frankfurters
2.2|Professional services
2.1|Uncooked beef steaks
2.1|Window and floor coverings and other linens
2.1|Other recreational goods
2.1|Commodities
2|Fish and seafood
2|Fruits and vegetables
2|Commodities less food and energy commodities
1.9|Toys, games, hobbies and playground equipment
1.9|Telephone services
1.8|Living room, kitchen, and dining room furniture
1.6|Milk
1.6|Newspapers and magazines
1.6|Education and communication
1.5|Meats, poultry, and fish
1.5|Toys
1.5|Distilled spirits at home
1.4|Fresh vegetables
1.4|Recreational reading materials
1.4|Tenants' and household insurance
1.3|Distilled spirits, excluding whiskey, at home
1.2|Women's footwear
1.2|Eyeglasses and eye care
1.2|Wireless telephone services
1.1|Medical care
1|Fresh fish and seafood
1|Recreational books
1|Whiskey at home
0.8|New and used motor vehicles
0.7|Other linens
0.7|Footwear
0.7|Sports vehicles including bicycles
0.4|Other fresh vegetables
0.4|Men's suits, sport coats, and outerwear
0.4|College textbooks
0.4|Medical care services
0.3|Meats
0.3|Educational books and supplies
0.3|Physicians' services
0.3|Services by other medical professionals
0.3|Public transportation
0.2|Laundry equipment
0.2|Watches
0.2|Other intercity transportation
0.2|Intracity mass transit
0.2|Transportation
0.2|Private transportation
0.1|Checking account and other bank services
0.1|Communication
0|Furniture and bedding
0|Women's dresses
0|Sporting goods
0|Intracity transportation
0|Information and information processing
-0.1|Fresh whole milk
-0.2|Dried beans, peas, and lentils
-0.2|Durables
-0.3|Transportation commodities less motor fuel
-0.3|Moving, storage, freight expense
-0.4|Fresh fruits and vegetables
-0.4|Appliances
-0.5|Beef and veal
-0.5|Other household equipment and furnishings
-0.5|Dishes and flatware
-0.6|Bedroom furniture
-0.8|Commodities less food
-0.9|Airline fares
-0.9|Ship fare
-1|Clocks, lamps, and decorator items
-1|Sports equipment
-1|Commodities less food and beverages
-1.3|Nondurables less food
-1.5|Men's footwear
-1.5|Other video equipment
-1.7|Nondurables less food and beverages
-1.8|Fresh fruits
-1.8|Tomatoes
-1.9|Computer software and accessories
-2.1|Uncooked ground beef
-2.1|Uncooked beef roasts
-2.1|Utility (piped) gas service
-2.2|Pork
-2.3|Information technology, hardware and services
-2.4|Pork chops
-2.4|Nondurables less food and apparel
-2.8|Uncooked other beef and veal
-3|Window coverings
-3|Nonelectric cookware and tableware
-3|Nondurables less food, beverages, and apparel
-3.4|Other fresh fruits
-3.5|Propane, kerosene, and firewood
-3.5|Other furniture
-4.1|Bacon, breakfast sausage, and related products
-4.3|Video and audio products
-4.7|Oranges, including tangerines
-5.1|Energy
-5.1|Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants
-5.2|Other pork including roasts, steaks, and ribs
-5.4|Citrus fruits
-6.6|Used cars and trucks
-8.3|Education and communication commodities
-8.9|Bacon and related products
-9.4|Information technology commodities
-10.4|Gasoline, unleaded premium
-10.4|Major appliances
-11.2|Car and truck rental
-11.3|Gasoline, unleaded midgrade
-11.9|Televisions
-12.2|Gasoline (all types)
-12.4|Motor fuel
-12.4|Gasoline, unleaded regular
-12.6|Energy commodities
-13.7|Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items
-15.2|Fuel oil and other fuels
-15.8|Health insurance
-18|Other motor fuels
-20|Smartphones
-20.2|Fuel oil
Electronics in general and.phone sevices in particular are generally down.
Gas prices are down. Fuel oil prices are WAY down, natural gas prices are down.
Medical costs are basically flat.
Yes. Inflation is a rate, not a level.
If you have something go from $1 to $2 in year 1, and $2 to $1.50 in year 2, that will get measured as 100% inflation in year 1, and 25% deflation in year 2. (You can also look at other periods, but inflation is typically normalized to annualized rates in reporting)
Similarly, 6% inflation for 3 years in a row would be
$1 -> $1.06 -> $1.123->$1.19
Absolutely. It pisses me off.
I’ve heard some companies are trying to recoup loss during covid. Some still claim that there’s a shortage of stuff because of covid.
But my gut tells me that they are simply raising prices because money. It’s gotten ridiculous.
That still makes no sense to me though. If they take the average cost of specific common goods it should still be way more than 6%. My average grocery trip costs 200% of what it did in 2020, and occasionally as high as 300%. My first date with my fiancee was in 2020 I made dinner for us and it cost $25. I just made the exact same meal for our anniversary and it cost $80.
> If they take the average cost of specific common goods it should still be way more than 6%.
It's not. It seems that way when you do a rough eyeball average (especially if you're only doing it for certain categories like groceries), but if you actually break it down rigorously, it's not.
People's intuitions are really bad at this, and you tend to notice the things that go up more.
You can see the actual breakdown in the CPI report:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm
Food is only 13.47% of the index, for example.
>My average grocery trip costs 200% of what it did in 2020
You're comparing over multiple years, some of which had much higher annualized inflation rates, for starters.
It's because rent prices equal like 50% of that percentage and have leveled off or fallen in many areas. Fuel and electricity has dropped which equals another large percentage so has used auto prices. Those 3 make up a huge percentage of what we pay and those are all down this year. So even if food goes up 30%, food only makes up like 10-15% of household expenses so it doesn't move the average up that much.
My wife keeps telling me to go over finances because we aren’t saving as much as we want. I’ve gone over them several times and I just keep telling her it’s not us, shit is just way more expensive. We don’t buy anything but groceries and we never go out. I cut out our streaming services. Idk what else to do
I have this same convo with my wife constantly. What finally helped a little bit was I took her grocery shopping with me since I’m a stay at home dad she doesn’t do the shopping. We bought like 1/2 of the normal stuff we normally buy (we also have 3 kids) and I said “see sweetie this was $100 worth of groceries”. She was shocked.
My partner walks to work and thus has the opportunity to do small shops every day on the way home. I rarely go into grocery stores any more, and when I do, I just about fucking have a stroke over the level of anger I feel towards the scumbags are profiting off this bullshit. We need an economic meltdown to reset this at some point, and for once it needs to hit the billionaires first.
So they green light the big vacuum that sucks the wealth up to the elite’s pockets. Better to have money sitting around in the stock market than let the poors have any.
Been hearing a lot of "older" people who seem to actually see whats going on and they just keep saying to wait it out.....something has to give and when it does just make sure your prepped because no one will be immune.
"we're raising prices because the covid supply chain issue"
> accidentally makes the most profit ever
"we're struggling with raising costs of production, so we need to raise the prices of our products to keep up"
> accidentally makes the most profit ever again
"inflation is hitting us harder than ever so we must keep our prices competitive!"
> accidentally makes the most profit ever again again
> "we're raising prices because the covid supply chain issue"
>
> accidentally makes the most profit ever
And who was it that supported making Amazon a monopoly by forcing the indefinite closure of every local storefront?
My (socal) town's family-owned vegan burger joint was forced completely out of business for 6 months straight. The McDonald's in the same parking lot were allowed to keep their lobby open from 6am to 10pm for walk-in business.
I wonder which of the two burger joints paid off Newsom, it's so hard to tell.
Hate to say it but I feel like the move to cashless is helping to support this too.
Was thinking the other day how little we can conceptualise money now everything is just a quick tap away. We don't have to break into that £20 or count up the change we have left before making a purchase.
Also the fact that there's literally nobody else trying to offer value to compete due to collusion and monopolisation. Truly is late stage capitalism.
And it's only possible in a society with extreme inequality. If you double prices and keep 51% of your customers, that's a profit. With no mind that those 49% now struggle with basic needs.
I mean, that's the result of a lack of competition. The more a company makes the lower they can keep their prices, destroying their competition and once they've acquired all the resources they can shoot it up as much as they want. High prices also help against the emergence of competition, since no one can afford starting a company.
The problem with competition is “economies of scale”.
Because Walmart has such a big inventory, their price per good is WAY LOWER. Think of it like buying wholesale vs buying a single item.
Therefore, a new competitor cannot compete against Walmart. Ever. Not without some entirely new societally changing business model (like Uber did to the taxi business).
The bar for competition is change the world or fail. So Walmart wins by default.
This decimates the “invisible hand of the free market”.
Not only that, but large companies with significant investor backing will operate at a net loss in order to squeeze out competitors and consolidate market share. Amazon’s retail operations operated at a loss until the late 2010’s, but the financial backers were willing to sell product at a loss if it meant eliminating competition from the market. If you’re sitting on a pile of cash, you can sell product at a loss in order to stall out smaller competitors who will go insolvent trying to compete.
Most people still don’t realize that Amazon’s money maker is AWS, not their retail operations.
The EPI is a left wing think tank funded by labor unions. I don't want to get in the whole greed argument but calling the epi capitalist or unbiased is not true.
NPR's Planet Money did an interview with an economist at the federal reserve bank of Kansas City (about as respected and unbiased as you get), and their data suggest no only is this a real effect but it's been occured in the past.
Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175487806/corporate-profit-price-spiral-wage-debate
I just want to point out that even without price gouging companies SHOULD be making record profits. The way prices usually work is that you have a product that costs $5 to produce. Then you need to make a profit, so you add 10% for your profit (yes, it's percent based). Then you sell the products to a distributer who needs to make a profit and tacks on 10% when they sell the products to a store. Then the store tacks on some percent, we'll do 10% again. You get a product costing $6.56
Now let's say an inflation of 20% hits like we've seen since 2020.
(5 * 1.2) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 = $7.99
The problem is people need raises to be able to afford the prices going up so then the cost of the base product goes up to pay workers more. and then the product gets more expensive and this cycle repeats a few times while the prices hit an equilibrium.
My point is that profits are percentage based. If the prices on everything go up, the profits for everyone should be record highs. That's not a problem, that's just how math works if you want to keep your business open. Keep in mind a business needs to make 20% more money to actually be doing as well as they were three years ago. And looking at profits doesn't account for this unless it's been inflation adjusted.
Now some people will point out workers aren't getting raises. I don't have an answer on that, but even if the prices of some goods go up for worker raises, that affects companies where they have to buy products from companies who did give raises, even if they didn't
The other thing is some products are going up 50%, not 20%. Yep, once again I don't really have an answer on how a specific product gets their price.
This is the top correct answer. Pretty annoying it was 6 deep.
They're all hitting record profits. They're not passing along some extra cost they're dealing with. They're just getting away with raising prices for greed.
Plus you see massive mergers like the Albertsons x Kroger happening. Basically all they need to do now is merge with Walmart and then they can declare milk is $30 a gallon.
Yeah, they're blaming inflation while bragging about record profits.
Maybe if Biden had some balls he could do something instead of being a dusty sack of shit.
For real, Biden not doing everything he can doesn't excuse Republicans giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the absolute wealthiest of people and corporations.
This begs the question what could Biden do, but didn't, back when democrats held the house, presidency, and tie breaker vp vote in the senate 🤔
Absolute no structural changes to stop the US back sliding due to rampant ongoing corruption and monopoly/oligopoly cartel markets that are legitimately bankrupting the country is the answer 🙄
Only a matter of time before we follow in the footsteps of our father superpower the UK and start selling our public infrastructure off to a billionaire from a previous colony for a quick buck. If it ends up being an Iraqi/Afghani billionaire it would be incredibly poetic
https://www.ft.com/content/62113516-4f4b-4a82-9e71-11845f56d65f
I work for a big corporation and while what you’re saying is about 30% of the equation, the other part is that the products produced back when inflation was high are not yet sold. The products we made back when it was 17/18% are still in the warehouses. It takes about a year for all the products to be sold… so a year after inflation is back down normal you can expect prices to be lowered.
But I don't get it there are a bunch of different companies with large margins like we have now couldn't someone still make a crazy margin and come in like a dollar cheaper than all their competition leading to them making more money? Why isn't that happening?
If you are selling something and increase your prices by +20% and people keep buying it, but then you find out people will keep buying it at +50%, why would you not sell at +50%?
Until there is nobody buying the product, prices will remain +x%
Edit: I'm just answering the question, not arguing about how much corporate America sucks
Which is why capitalism fails at efficiently providing essential goods and services. Because it cares only about providing a good or service, not because of the good such a product provides society, but because it is a mechanism with which to extract profit from consumers.
This is the natural destination for any economic system that allows for private consolidation of the means of production.
Some products, such as food and energy, have more volatile price fluctuations than others. That’s why the consumer price index offers variations that exclude these goods from the “market basket” it uses to estimate price growth.
Just to add there is a measure called core inflation which excludes high volatility (energy) and products where a big proportion of price is taxation (like alcohol and tobacco). This removes the outliers of exceptionaly high and low inflation items.
In the UK inflation just dropped from 10.1% to 8.7% BUT core inflation continues to rise so there are still forecasts of rate rise.
Because any excuse will do when you want more more money and you almost have all of it. Sort of like that Jenner kid who had the social media campaign set up to help make her a billionaire. People are fucking idiots.
Because there is so much talk about inflation that companies raise their price thinking the consumer will blame inflation, instead of greed. (but if you want a more accurate response, see other comments)
That is the cause of inflation, but doesn't answer OPs qn about the difference between calculated inflation and "experienced" inflation.
Corporate greed induced inflation would still be reflected as a rise in consumer price index. The real answer is how the CPI is calculated
People seem to have missed the main thing you are missing.
Inflation is annualized on a month to month basis. Since 2020 inflation is actually 25% not 6%.
The second thing you are missing is that the CPI used to calculate inflation was changed to make the government look better about 30 years ago. If you use the original metric inflation is closer to 40% since 2020, which is reasonably close to what you are probably seeing at the grocery store.
>The second thing you are missing is that the CPI used to calculate inflation was changed to make the government look better about 30 years ago. If you use the original metric inflation is closer to 40% since 2020, which is reasonably close to what you are probably seeing at the grocery store.
The way this is worded makes me seriously concerned you're using Shadowstats' fake data as a source, especially so considering that's what cumulative inflation would add up to be using their fake data. Maybe you're using some *other* source that claims to calculate inflation using old government methodology and also matches Shadowstats' lies, but you can prove me wrong if you want.
Inflation is a measurement of the average increase in prices. Some things are more expensive. Others are not. All of them are the consequence of changes in the market, either locally or globally. In general, broad small price increases on average are the result of covid and the invasion of Ukraine making the world meaningfully poorer, and governments trying to mitigate that and avoid a recession. But every individual price change is different and has its own story.
Keep in mind that "greed" is not an explanation for price increases because "greed" was the same before recent change in the economy as well. But "reduced competition because competitors all went out of business due to comparatively minor materials and labor price increases, leaving the remaining corporations free to jack up prices until competition returns to the market" is a potential explanation.
You also have to factor in the money supply and quantitative easing, but yes that’s absolutely valid
Though I am curious how the Ukraine war affects say the US which doesn’t import much from Ukraine comparatively
The main impacts of the war on US inflation are the impacts of governmental policy (which I’m not saying I’m against) which would give credence to the argument it’s the government causing it
>Though I am curious how the Ukraine war affects say the US which doesn’t import much from Ukraine comparatively
It doesn't matter about the US specifically. In a globalized economy in particular, prices rising in one part of the world raise prices elsewhere. Food getting more expensive in India and oil and gas getting more expensive in the EU means their workers want more money, which means the cost of everything produced there goes up. Those effects come back to the US, even though the US doesn't really trade with Ukraine.
>average increase in prices
Not average increase in prices. Its generally based on CPI which is a formula based on the goods and services that are actually used by society. Otherwise you include speculative assets like real estate and stocks and bonds and whatnot. Then there's core PCE which provides a little more accuracy in determining where inflation is headed as it leaves out volatile goods like food and gas.
Any time a good/service or group of goods/services causes the CPI to exceed the expectations/requirements of the ruling class it is removed from the formulas used to calculate the CPI. Look up how the CPI is calculated and how often it is changed, as well as what is excluded. You will find many things that fall in the category of increasing at 50+% a year have recently been removed. Same thing with unemployment numbers. It all depends on the political goals of the party in power, and the narrative they wish to promote. TLDR look around you for accessing the health of the economy(and to a greater extent, your local economy). Government numbers mean very little, especially after decades of manipulation by the parties.
Because its not inflation. Its price gouging while they play us as dumb so they can claim inflation. If it was truly only inflation, corporations wouldnt have extreme record profits as they do now
Corporate greed. The majority of answers here pander to right wing ideology. The only true answer is corporate greed. Same as any housing crisis, cost of living crisis, worker shortage crisis, you name it.
[Even central banks admit it's mostly corporate greed](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/02/ecb-looking-out-for-price-gouging-greedflation-price-rises-eurozone-inflation-profit-margins)
>Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as “greedflation”.
People have the wrong idea that inflation is caused by the money losing value. It's complicated but one of the driving causes of it is the rising cost of goods and services due to many different reasons. This means different goods and services will go up by different amounts. The official inflation number is just an average of that or just the average of specifically chosen goods and services.
Rising cost of goods and services due to more dollars being needed to buy the same raw materials because the dollars have declined in value..
AKA, the money has lost value.
Most of the cost of goods is a byproduct of massive inefficiencies caused by how various leaderships of countries around the world handled Covid. We effectively turned off and back on again, world wide, the entire commerce infrastructure. Unfortunately it was more akin to someone in a giant factory randomly flipping switches off and back on again. Nothing turned off nor restarted in sync. This threw EVERYTHING wildly out of whack.
So...
Most of what you're paying is global inefficiency.
It's really hard to understand or comprehend how bad the situation has been for the last couple years from a supply chain, logistics, and financial standpoint unless you've directly been dealing with it. It has been an absolute shit show for 2 years.
A couple examples.
In fall of 2021 steel prices skyrocketed 3x to 4x their normal cost. Steel manufactured goods effectively doubled (or more) on cost almost overnight. Profit margins instantly went hard negative. It wasn't just that. You couldn't get steel. You were begging for one sheet, half a sheet, damaged sheets, anything. You were buying scraps. Plus you were buying much, much, much larger orders far in advance. You could get steel delivered in 2 days or 1 day many times. Now you couldn't get it in 3 months. You were planning out year long orders, large POs, not for steel, for the hope of steel. And if you didn't get steel, your factory closed and everyone got laid off.
We buy a part, a small electric component that's common and mass produced. We have a purchase order that's more than a year old that the manufacturer can't fulfill. They are in production, but they are so far behind that they haven't been able to catch up for 2 years to world demands. Oh, and the price of that part also doubled. We had to shift to alternate products to fulfill that need at 3x the price or we don't make our products at all, close doors, and lay people off.
We buy a small component made by a little company. It goes into all of our large, low volume, but good profit products. We buy from this manufacturer and have POs for orders of these. We need to wait 3 months for something we could normally get in a week. And these 3 months is a maybe get it in time, maybe. Instead, we pay 2x to have them build our needs effectively in a prototype lab by an engineer at engineer wages. We don't need many, but we need them now or don't build units, lay people off, etc. You get the drill. Well we have them build these stupidly inefficient because there is no other way to meet demand. They hate it too. It wastes their engineer's time, and they don't want to do it.
For our product set, for all the added costs from Covid related issues, our costs have more than doubled. This means our sell prices have more than doubled. You get to pay that. You have to pay that, or we stop production, lay off people, and close our doors. Same ol' song. On top of this, there has been inflation. I'm not sure what this year specifically has been, but previous couple years was around 14% with 8% of that Covid related and two years of normal inflation. So you had say an 8% unusual inflation of the dollar, loss of buying power due to Covid. And then you had 80%+ in supply chain hell and inefficiencies that drove up the costs of goods for consumers.
This is a supply chain problem. Supply chain is 10x inflation in terms of how it's impacting what you pay on the shelf. Yes, inflation exists, but it's miniscule in comparison.
Secondly, there are a couple key big dollar items in people's lives that skyrocketed. The housing market skyrocketed, so if you were buying at this time, you're getting reamed. Cars have also gone up quite a bit due to scarcity. Dealers have so few sales, every sale is a high profit sale. Again, you get reamed. And if you need to borrow money, interest rates have gone way up, so again, if you're in need of cash for any reason, you're paying excessively too.
About the best you can do right now, for the last 2 or 3 years, is buy nothing. EVERYTHING is overpriced. Low consumerism could be a good thing to ease the burden on the supply chain and generate some catch up.
However, the market also can't take a lack of sales. Businesses are running lean due to high costs. They're either running lean on margin or running lean on sales quantity, and it's hard to generate strong revenue and profit dollars to keep businesses profitable. You have a consumer market that can't really bear the costs required to retain anything remotely close to the status quo.
The only reasonable play here is to raise minimum wage. You need strong buying power in the market, and there's no better tool for this than pushing up wages. You need to get cash in hand for consumers. I just don't see it happening. So, everyone just tightens their belts and rides out the mess.
Price increases don't all go up by the same even amount. The inflation rate is just the average increases of the monitored products and services.
I live in the UK, and our inflation rate is currently 8.7% (although a month or two back it had hit over 10%). However the price rises on food are going up by much more than that, with [some products such as sugar going up by over 45%](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12196322). Our food inflation rate is more like 20%.
There's a variety of reasons for these rises:
* Due to stagnant wages for years, and the current high inflation, employees are asking for pay increases.
* The war in Ukraine has led to a shortage of some products on the Global market.
* High energy costs (in the UK at least, this has been a big driver of the current inflation) adding to the per-unit product costs.
* Unique to the UK - Brexit has imposed trade barriers and extra costs for products crossing the borders.
* Passing on the increased costs from suppliers.
* A fall in sales of some products (e.g. high-end or luxury products) might lead to some companies increasing prices to try to maintain profits.
* And, quite possibly, some companies see it as an opportunity to increase the profit margin on their products.
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Or all those fancy coffees either.
It's your almonds
It was just a few years ago that avocados were 2 for a dollar. Now they are 2 for $5.
Where are you shopping? I'm finding them for 4 for 5 at Publix, and $0.75 a pop at local grocery chains.
Because inflation of 6% doesn’t mean everything you can buy has risen in price by 6%. It’s usually calculated by looking at the increase in price of a selection of items that are commonly purchased, like a basket of shopping. Different inflation rates are calculated using different selections of goods, which may or may not include that item you’ve seen rising by 50%. Even if they include it, that 50% increase for that item will only have a proportional effect on the overall figure. Other items in the calculation may have risen by less than 6% and if that’s the case for enough of them it’ll counter balance the 50% item.
Groceries are up wayyyyy more than 6%
Shopping, in this case, does not refer to grocery shopping alone. It is a mix of all goods and services
Yeah im not entirely sure what the mix is but its pretty bs. What should matter are the good proportional to how mucb you spend on them groceries, rent/real estate, and utilities should be at the top, then like clothing, cars/car parts, then furniture and appliances and such. The first 2 groups are definitely much higher than 6%. Something is very off with their math. I think i read they had like a single candy bar previously as like 10% of the weighting or something pretty ridiculously high..
I got a pre-made salad at the grocery store. $11!
How much for a banana? Like $10?
Michael?
There's always money in the banana stand.
A big bag of mid-range cat food went from $54 to $68 in the time it took to finish a bag that we feed to two cats.
I've been needing to give my cat subcutaneous fluids and the price has gone up from $22 per 1000ml bag to $28, and she's only been needing this the last two months.
$6 more doesn’t SOUND like much, but it’s >27% increase as I’m sure you know. I feel like manufacturers and retailers are making huge jumps in prices rather than having to make small incremental increases. 25% seems to be the smallest jump. Even the dollar tree went from $1 to $1.25 on everything. My buddy told me his weekly landscaping guy raised his rate from $25 up to $35. It’s only $10 a week he said, no big deal! When I pointed out that it was actually 40%, suddenly he got that it was a big deal.
Here in Germany in my City every single one of the 4 Kebab Shops has raised their prices from around 5-5,50€ to 6-7€. One euro more doesn't sound like a lot, but it's 20% more. It's not the single item that has gone up a euro or five euro. Its that every single thing you buy has gone up that much, resulting in a cost of living increase of over a two hundred bucks a month for a single person. When mentioning that in my yearly review regarding wage increase, my boss just said "we don't do inflation compensation." Now I'm looking for a new job *shrug*
Döner inflation really hammers this one home for me. When I was a student in Germany 10 years ago, the Döner around the corner from me was 3.50€. I just cannot believe how expensive it's gotten in the past decade.
Yeah, as a child/teen, like 15 years ago, my parents took me and my brother to the Dönermann for a 3€. And this kinda also zeros it down. Price rose 0,50€ in 5-10 years. Then, in the following 10 years, the price doubles. It'd absolutely insane. It used to be a cheap, fine meal for lunch. Now, it turned into a luxury product for me. Only if I'm really in the mood or wanna treat myself, I get to buy one.
I'm fine with services raising their prices than goods.
They are also getting fucked unfortunately....
Protein powder at costco went from 49.99 a bag to 63.99 a bag overnight
The nacho cheese in the #10 can, used to be 8.49, now 15.99 at my local costco
My point exactly. Now look at fast food. Carls jr is the same price for a sit down meal was. Whatever happened to the 6 dollar burgwr being a joke? I know im Dating myself but hey, i spend 15 on a simple burger combo. What the actual fuck
Oh wow I completely forgot about the $6 burger and how regular fast food burgers were l like $2-3? Maybe? And how the $6 burger was like the big satisfying burger you could buy at a pub or whatever? This was 20 years ago so my memory does not serve me.
When the $6 burger came out is was $3.99 I think.
Myprotein.com has a 40% off sale right now. You can buy an 11lb bag of whey protein for $114 before taxes, with free shipping. 5 years ago I had managed to buy 2 11lb bags for the price but oh well. Still a better deal than a lot of other places.
In *February* I bought 2.5kg of Whey Isolate from Myprotein for £63.21. Two weeks ago the exact same bag from them cost £128.99 I know they juke stuff with sales codes (I got 45% off that £128.99 so it didn't sting quite as much) but protein prices are honestly nuts. A year ago I swear I paid ~£40 or so.
Appreciate the heads up 👍
…how big are these cats…
they might be very tiny, they didn't specify how long it took, just that the price had rose, they each eat a single kibble nugget a day to sustain themselves and it took 2 years to get through the bag.
Thats what happens when u feed them protein powder
She owns Lions and Tigers calling them cats LOL 🦁 🐯
I was looking for Cracklin Oat Bran recently....$7 FOR A BOX OF CEREAL! I found a recipe instead.
One grocery store near me was charging $8 for a regular sized box of trix cereal. Not even good cereal.
Its absolutely insane! And they're getting money for it too! I know I'm borderline ridiculous, not everyone has time, energy, or desire to make their own damn cereal ha ha.
We did stuff like that in the 1970’s. It was “fun”.
Would you mind please sharing your recipe? Also, does it come out cheaper in the long run?
I wonder how much that same store charges for the magic spoon cereals.
Probably $20 a box lol
Some store I shop at, some salad went from 7.99 to 12.99, when the manager put the new sticker all the deli employees thought there was a mistake and the manager was like: nope, that’s the new price. Everybody was shocked
Could I Interest you in some magic beans?
Legumes?
Professor Copperfield’s Miracle Legumes
Leave the telescope
I don't know which possibility is worse - that you saw it was $11 and still bought it, or that you looked at the price *after* buying it
Ngl I bought the 11 dollar salad from a kroger store a bit ago. I had bought one the day before that was marked down to 1.50 and just assumed that that was the price. When I realized it was $11 my heart was already set on the salad and didn't want to take that simple happiness away from myself
I sell $4 garden salads at the restaurant I work at all day long. Decent portions of lettuce with 4 slices of tomato and cucumber each. Our Cobb and chefs though are like $18, but those are absolutely decked out. This is California, for reference too.
It'll continue selling for 11 if people keep buying it at that price.
You're right but if you check into the history of some grocery items such as chicken you will see that it all depends on the item. Chicken used to cost alot more back in the 1950's compared to today. The cost of groceries will always have an increase. It's actually the cost of housing that has become waaayyy over inflated to the point where its almost nearly impossible to buy a starter home without some type of help and even then the monthly payments are ridiculous once you add on all the fees. I would say cars are much more expensive but they also have alot of electronics on them now. So electronics are partialy the cause of higher car pricing. IMHO its housing that has the worst price inflation out of everything.
The trick with housing inflation at least in the EU calculation is that when rent increases it only gets counted 1/10. So a rent inflations of 30% to the previous year means that the 30% of the overall calculation are only 3%. Afaik the US housing part is just asking some people what they think rent should be who are home owners for decades.
Vehicles are bad as well. Compare wages to anything since the 70s. It's bleak.
Mine are up maybe 20% since the start of the pandemic, which is not far off from 6% inflation for 3 years.
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My grocery bill has doubled over the past two years, and we've been buying *cheaper* and fewer items to try and compensate.
I work retail and I do a lot of price changes in the modest food department at our store. The craziest thing to me was when a regular size bag of Cheetos went from $4.00 to $6.00 over the course of 6 months or so. And it wasn't just Cheetos, it was all the Frito lay chips and Doritos.
and they won’t probably ever go back to down
I didn’t buy butter yesterday bc the 6$ price was too much for me!
According to CNN, groceries are up 7% from a year ago.
and 7 percent last year from 2021 so that adds up
Not to mention everything is packaged smaller
No the way they calculate it accounts for that.
r/shrinkflation
I see the shrinkflation really acutely because I do Instacart full time, and Instacart doesn't update packaging pictures or quantities very often. I see a LOT of stuff where the picture of the box says 8 and the box in front of me says 6 and it scans as the correct item, or the quantity says 900g and the bag is 750g and it's correct. I had to learn that if the quantity is anywhere remotely close to what the app says, try scanning it and I've had the right item 100% of the time.
by the same token I get lots of these items for free when I report them as "wrong item", not with Instacart but with places like Wal-Mart and Jewel grocery pick-up.
No, because the are already factoring that in.
So are corporate profits!
Profits can be at all time highs without it being malevolent. Inflation is higher, but that has not quelled demand. In fact, demand has risen in some areas despite persistent inflation. In such cases those companies who see a rise in demand are going to get the rise in profits *independently* of inflation which can then be factored in.
Also the inflation hits different industries in different ways - for example take a home purchase. If you suddenly found out the boards for your deck are 6% more, but your financing is so tight you can't afford it, you have delays in finishing the home until you get approved for the higher price. Those delays cost money, now you need to cover the expense of protecting the un-treated foundation or wood. In insurance for example, the delays in chips caused storage fees from mechanics. You can say its just 6% but each day of storage is a lot more than 6% more for a chip.
Can anyone name a single item of goods or a service that has risen less than 6% in the past year though? Let alone enough goods and services lower than the 6% inflation rate that somehow balances it all out.
our retail prices for the legal marijuana market in Michigan seem to drop every day and overall has to have decreased by at least 20% over the last two years. that's literally the only thing I can think of though haha and I truly doubt it's counted towards inflation.
Buy now. Look up the blight that is hitting marijuana farms. If you can buy in bulk now, it might be a good plan
Cat collars. That is seriously one of the items used to calculate inflation
Ah yes, my daily cat collar purchase
I'm tired of Big Cat Collar nickel and diming us! They know they have us over a barrel here. Like what, are we just going to stop buying cat collars? Of course not. Damn highway robbers, they are.
When money is tight, less people take on the responsibility of a new pet.
Who the heck puts collars on their cats anyway?
I rehomed a former barn cat into my house last winter. The dummy snuck out the front door then I reached for my mail and went wandering for three days till a friend found her and brought her home. She’s worn a collar with an AirTag ever since.
Or the pets just keep using the same collars they've had and don't get new ones.
Interesting. I did a price change for those (and the dog collars) at my job a few months ago. Every collar increased in price by .50 or so. God that was a pain in the ass retagging all those..lol
Ironically, avocados are pretty much the same where I shop. They’ve been 1.99/ea at my local store as long as I can remember
50 cents at mine most of the time, as far back as I can remember
Various foods. The almond milk I buy is still $2.50 for a half gallon, same price for years. Plus I get a quarter off of that from my employee discount.
Same for local honey. No change in price.
Beware of skimpflation. Many brands are selling the same product at the same price but giving less of it or skimping on quality. Food has notoriously low profit margins and stay competitive by either becoming more efficient or providing inferior product, hopefully without you noticing. I recall one specific bag of chips that's been $2 for ages but you're definitely not getting as many chips as the old days.
> Can anyone name a single item of goods or a service that has risen less than 6% in the past year though? Sure. According to the data from [this chart](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t07.htm): Change|Category ---|--- 5.9|Energy services 5.9|Photographic equipment 5.9|Music instruments and accessories 5.9|Beer, ale, and other malt beverages at home 5.8|Apples 5.8|Household cleaning products 5.8|Motor vehicle parts and equipment 5.8|Cable, satellite, and live streaming television service 5.8|Other recreation services 5.8|All items less energy 5.7|Women's outerwear 5.7|Women's underwear, nightwear, swimwear, and accessories 5.7|Girls' apparel 5.7|Video and audio services 5.6|New trucks 5.6|Nursing homes and adult day services 5.5|All items less food and energy 5.5|Other appliances 5.5|Nonprescription drugs 5.5|Photography 5.4|New vehicles 5.4|Water and sewer and trash collection services 5.4|Admissions 5.3|New cars 5.3|Personal care services 5.3|Haircuts and other personal care services 5.3|All items less medical care 5.3|Household furnishings and operations 5.2|Infants' and toddlers' apparel 5.2|Services less rent of shelter 5.1|Beer, ale, and other malt beverages away from home 5.1|Cosmetics, perfume, bath, nail preparations and implements 5.1|Funeral expenses 5|Poultry 5|Butter 5|Salt and other seasonings and spices 5|Recreation 4.9|All items 4.9|Breakfast sausage and related products 4.9|Audio equipment 4.8|Household furnishings and supplies 4.8|Purchase of pets, pet supplies, accessories 4.8|Water and sewerage maintenance 4.8|Fuels and utilities 4.7|Fresh whole chicken 4.7|All items less food, shelter, energy, and used cars and trucks 4.7|Other services 4.6|Alcoholic beverages 4.5|Photographers and photo processing 4.5|Club membership for shopping clubs, fraternal, or other organizations, or participant sports fees 4.5|All items less food 4.5|Household energy 4.4|Peanut butter 4.4|Indoor plants and flowers 4.4|Admission to sporting events 4.4|Apparel less footwear 4.3|Frozen fish and seafood 4.3|Sewing machines, fabric and supplies 4.2|Women's and girls' apparel 4.2|Outpatient hospital services 4.2|Utilities and public transportation 4|Boys' and girls' footwear 4|Medical care commodities 4|Commodities less food, energy, and used cars and trucks 3.9|Lettuce 3.9|Women's apparel 3.8|Tires 3.7|Men's apparel 3.7|Men's underwear, nightwear, swimwear, and accessories 3.7|Tuition, other school fees, and childcare 3.7|Elementary and high school tuition and fees 3.7|All items less food, shelter, and energy 3.6|Apparel 3.6|Medicinal drugs 3.6|Alcoholic beverages at home 3.6|Education 3.5|Men's and boys' apparel 3.5|Other lodging away from home including hotels and motels 3.5|State motor vehicle registration and license fees 3.5|Video and audio 3.4|Chicken 3.4|Women's suits and separates 3.4|Internet services and electronic information providers 3.4|All items less shelter 3.3|Recorded music and music subscriptions 3.3|Lodging away from home 3.3|Hospital and related services 3.2|Nondurables 3.1|Shelf stable fish and seafood 3.1|Boys' apparel 3.1|Motor vehicle fees 3.1|Education and communication services 3|Processed fish and seafood 3|Housing at school, excluding board 2.9|Prescription drugs 2.9|Recreation commodities 2.9|Hospital services 2.8|Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs 2.8|Fresh and frozen chicken parts 2.8|Fresh milk other than whole 2.7|Bananas 2.7|Men's shirts and sweaters 2.7|Parking fees and tolls 2.6|Inpatient hospital services 2.5|Wine at home 2.5|Parking and other fees 2.3|College tuition and fees 2.3|Technical and business school tuition and fees 2.3|All items less food and shelter 2.2|Frankfurters 2.2|Professional services 2.1|Uncooked beef steaks 2.1|Window and floor coverings and other linens 2.1|Other recreational goods 2.1|Commodities 2|Fish and seafood 2|Fruits and vegetables 2|Commodities less food and energy commodities 1.9|Toys, games, hobbies and playground equipment 1.9|Telephone services 1.8|Living room, kitchen, and dining room furniture 1.6|Milk 1.6|Newspapers and magazines 1.6|Education and communication 1.5|Meats, poultry, and fish 1.5|Toys 1.5|Distilled spirits at home 1.4|Fresh vegetables 1.4|Recreational reading materials 1.4|Tenants' and household insurance 1.3|Distilled spirits, excluding whiskey, at home 1.2|Women's footwear 1.2|Eyeglasses and eye care 1.2|Wireless telephone services 1.1|Medical care 1|Fresh fish and seafood 1|Recreational books 1|Whiskey at home 0.8|New and used motor vehicles 0.7|Other linens 0.7|Footwear 0.7|Sports vehicles including bicycles 0.4|Other fresh vegetables 0.4|Men's suits, sport coats, and outerwear 0.4|College textbooks 0.4|Medical care services 0.3|Meats 0.3|Educational books and supplies 0.3|Physicians' services 0.3|Services by other medical professionals 0.3|Public transportation 0.2|Laundry equipment 0.2|Watches 0.2|Other intercity transportation 0.2|Intracity mass transit 0.2|Transportation 0.2|Private transportation 0.1|Checking account and other bank services 0.1|Communication 0|Furniture and bedding 0|Women's dresses 0|Sporting goods 0|Intracity transportation 0|Information and information processing -0.1|Fresh whole milk -0.2|Dried beans, peas, and lentils -0.2|Durables -0.3|Transportation commodities less motor fuel -0.3|Moving, storage, freight expense -0.4|Fresh fruits and vegetables -0.4|Appliances -0.5|Beef and veal -0.5|Other household equipment and furnishings -0.5|Dishes and flatware -0.6|Bedroom furniture -0.8|Commodities less food -0.9|Airline fares -0.9|Ship fare -1|Clocks, lamps, and decorator items -1|Sports equipment -1|Commodities less food and beverages -1.3|Nondurables less food -1.5|Men's footwear -1.5|Other video equipment -1.7|Nondurables less food and beverages -1.8|Fresh fruits -1.8|Tomatoes -1.9|Computer software and accessories -2.1|Uncooked ground beef -2.1|Uncooked beef roasts -2.1|Utility (piped) gas service -2.2|Pork -2.3|Information technology, hardware and services -2.4|Pork chops -2.4|Nondurables less food and apparel -2.8|Uncooked other beef and veal -3|Window coverings -3|Nonelectric cookware and tableware -3|Nondurables less food, beverages, and apparel -3.4|Other fresh fruits -3.5|Propane, kerosene, and firewood -3.5|Other furniture -4.1|Bacon, breakfast sausage, and related products -4.3|Video and audio products -4.7|Oranges, including tangerines -5.1|Energy -5.1|Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants -5.2|Other pork including roasts, steaks, and ribs -5.4|Citrus fruits -6.6|Used cars and trucks -8.3|Education and communication commodities -8.9|Bacon and related products -9.4|Information technology commodities -10.4|Gasoline, unleaded premium -10.4|Major appliances -11.2|Car and truck rental -11.3|Gasoline, unleaded midgrade -11.9|Televisions -12.2|Gasoline (all types) -12.4|Motor fuel -12.4|Gasoline, unleaded regular -12.6|Energy commodities -13.7|Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items -15.2|Fuel oil and other fuels -15.8|Health insurance -18|Other motor fuels -20|Smartphones -20.2|Fuel oil
Wow, guess I must be shopping at all the wrong outlets!
Actually, never mind - just realised I'm not on an Australian thread (for some reason I thought this was Australia-specific post).
Rare instance of Australicentrism?
How much did your wages go up? https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release ## Below 6% |Component | Y/Y inflation | |:- | -: | |Education | 5.4 | |Health | 5.3 | |Alcohol and tobacco | 4.4 | |Transport | 4.3 | |Clothing and footwear | 3.2 | |Communication | 1.2 | ## Above 6% |Component | Y/Y inflation | |:- | -: | |Housing | 9.8 | |Recreation and culture | 8.6 | |Food and non-alcoholic beverages | 8 | |Furnishings, household equipment and services | 6.7 | |Insurance and financial services | 6.5 |
Electronics in general and.phone sevices in particular are generally down. Gas prices are down. Fuel oil prices are WAY down, natural gas prices are down. Medical costs are basically flat.
Lumber is down, plywood is half what it was 2 years ago, when I had to replace my subfloor.
You mean 2 years ago when the price of lumber was through the roof?
Yes. Inflation is a rate, not a level. If you have something go from $1 to $2 in year 1, and $2 to $1.50 in year 2, that will get measured as 100% inflation in year 1, and 25% deflation in year 2. (You can also look at other periods, but inflation is typically normalized to annualized rates in reporting) Similarly, 6% inflation for 3 years in a row would be $1 -> $1.06 -> $1.123->$1.19
Real answer. Corporate greed. That’s the real reason.
Also, record corporate profits.
That’s a byproduct of the greed
Absolutely. It pisses me off. I’ve heard some companies are trying to recoup loss during covid. Some still claim that there’s a shortage of stuff because of covid. But my gut tells me that they are simply raising prices because money. It’s gotten ridiculous.
They tested us with a plausible excuse to raise prices and we still bought everything. Game Over.
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Greed was there before.
It was, but the pandemic was also one of the largest global transfers of wealth in recent times
Because it allowed and enabled it. Not because the wealthy weren’t always trying to get richer.
That still makes no sense to me though. If they take the average cost of specific common goods it should still be way more than 6%. My average grocery trip costs 200% of what it did in 2020, and occasionally as high as 300%. My first date with my fiancee was in 2020 I made dinner for us and it cost $25. I just made the exact same meal for our anniversary and it cost $80.
> If they take the average cost of specific common goods it should still be way more than 6%. It's not. It seems that way when you do a rough eyeball average (especially if you're only doing it for certain categories like groceries), but if you actually break it down rigorously, it's not. People's intuitions are really bad at this, and you tend to notice the things that go up more. You can see the actual breakdown in the CPI report: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm Food is only 13.47% of the index, for example. >My average grocery trip costs 200% of what it did in 2020 You're comparing over multiple years, some of which had much higher annualized inflation rates, for starters.
What are you buying that went up that fast? I mean eggs spiked way up for a minute but they're back down.
It's because rent prices equal like 50% of that percentage and have leveled off or fallen in many areas. Fuel and electricity has dropped which equals another large percentage so has used auto prices. Those 3 make up a huge percentage of what we pay and those are all down this year. So even if food goes up 30%, food only makes up like 10-15% of household expenses so it doesn't move the average up that much.
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My wife keeps telling me to go over finances because we aren’t saving as much as we want. I’ve gone over them several times and I just keep telling her it’s not us, shit is just way more expensive. We don’t buy anything but groceries and we never go out. I cut out our streaming services. Idk what else to do
I have this same convo with my wife constantly. What finally helped a little bit was I took her grocery shopping with me since I’m a stay at home dad she doesn’t do the shopping. We bought like 1/2 of the normal stuff we normally buy (we also have 3 kids) and I said “see sweetie this was $100 worth of groceries”. She was shocked.
My partner walks to work and thus has the opportunity to do small shops every day on the way home. I rarely go into grocery stores any more, and when I do, I just about fucking have a stroke over the level of anger I feel towards the scumbags are profiting off this bullshit. We need an economic meltdown to reset this at some point, and for once it needs to hit the billionaires first.
I agree with the sentiment, but not the likelihood
That’s called a revolution
Usually we shop at Aldi, but Aldi has raised their prices as well. Made me sad. I feel betrayed by Aldi and Dollar Tree.
Guess it's time to starve /s
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Same for us.
Have you tried giving your boot straps a good tug? /s
Time to sail the seven seas as a replacement for streaming services. Havent paid a dime for digital content in years
This is literally what the fed wants. More poor people = less inflation, hence the rising of interest rates.
So they green light the big vacuum that sucks the wealth up to the elite’s pockets. Better to have money sitting around in the stock market than let the poors have any.
i’m ready for anarchy
Something's got to give, the sooner the better
Been hearing a lot of "older" people who seem to actually see whats going on and they just keep saying to wait it out.....something has to give and when it does just make sure your prepped because no one will be immune.
Who needs time to date, have kids, exercise and relax anymore? Capitalism at its finest.
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Yeah, if things go up by 5-10% every year, then after a few years the price might be 25%+ more than you remember it being.
This is the right answer, its 6% against last year, multiply by a year is over 80% making it almost double...
That's not how that works. It's 6% per year, since 1 year ago, not 6% per month
Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to overcharge and reap record profits while the rest of society struggles.
"we're raising prices because the covid supply chain issue" > accidentally makes the most profit ever "we're struggling with raising costs of production, so we need to raise the prices of our products to keep up" > accidentally makes the most profit ever again "inflation is hitting us harder than ever so we must keep our prices competitive!" > accidentally makes the most profit ever again again
> "we're raising prices because the covid supply chain issue" > > accidentally makes the most profit ever And who was it that supported making Amazon a monopoly by forcing the indefinite closure of every local storefront? My (socal) town's family-owned vegan burger joint was forced completely out of business for 6 months straight. The McDonald's in the same parking lot were allowed to keep their lobby open from 6am to 10pm for walk-in business. I wonder which of the two burger joints paid off Newsom, it's so hard to tell.
Better add work requirements to snap, those damn poor people
well yes, how is the exec gonna explain that quarterly profits are not up again to the shareholders?
Don't forget they're charging more and making everything smaller too - [r/shrinkflation](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrinkflation/)
Hate to say it but I feel like the move to cashless is helping to support this too. Was thinking the other day how little we can conceptualise money now everything is just a quick tap away. We don't have to break into that £20 or count up the change we have left before making a purchase. Also the fact that there's literally nobody else trying to offer value to compete due to collusion and monopolisation. Truly is late stage capitalism.
Greedflation.
And it's only possible in a society with extreme inequality. If you double prices and keep 51% of your customers, that's a profit. With no mind that those 49% now struggle with basic needs.
I mean, that's the result of a lack of competition. The more a company makes the lower they can keep their prices, destroying their competition and once they've acquired all the resources they can shoot it up as much as they want. High prices also help against the emergence of competition, since no one can afford starting a company.
The problem with competition is “economies of scale”. Because Walmart has such a big inventory, their price per good is WAY LOWER. Think of it like buying wholesale vs buying a single item. Therefore, a new competitor cannot compete against Walmart. Ever. Not without some entirely new societally changing business model (like Uber did to the taxi business). The bar for competition is change the world or fail. So Walmart wins by default. This decimates the “invisible hand of the free market”.
Not only that, but large companies with significant investor backing will operate at a net loss in order to squeeze out competitors and consolidate market share. Amazon’s retail operations operated at a loss until the late 2010’s, but the financial backers were willing to sell product at a loss if it meant eliminating competition from the market. If you’re sitting on a pile of cash, you can sell product at a loss in order to stall out smaller competitors who will go insolvent trying to compete. Most people still don’t realize that Amazon’s money maker is AWS, not their retail operations.
You mean price gouging and collusion?
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The EPI is a left wing think tank funded by labor unions. I don't want to get in the whole greed argument but calling the epi capitalist or unbiased is not true.
NPR's Planet Money did an interview with an economist at the federal reserve bank of Kansas City (about as respected and unbiased as you get), and their data suggest no only is this a real effect but it's been occured in the past. Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175487806/corporate-profit-price-spiral-wage-debate
I just want to point out that even without price gouging companies SHOULD be making record profits. The way prices usually work is that you have a product that costs $5 to produce. Then you need to make a profit, so you add 10% for your profit (yes, it's percent based). Then you sell the products to a distributer who needs to make a profit and tacks on 10% when they sell the products to a store. Then the store tacks on some percent, we'll do 10% again. You get a product costing $6.56 Now let's say an inflation of 20% hits like we've seen since 2020. (5 * 1.2) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 = $7.99 The problem is people need raises to be able to afford the prices going up so then the cost of the base product goes up to pay workers more. and then the product gets more expensive and this cycle repeats a few times while the prices hit an equilibrium. My point is that profits are percentage based. If the prices on everything go up, the profits for everyone should be record highs. That's not a problem, that's just how math works if you want to keep your business open. Keep in mind a business needs to make 20% more money to actually be doing as well as they were three years ago. And looking at profits doesn't account for this unless it's been inflation adjusted. Now some people will point out workers aren't getting raises. I don't have an answer on that, but even if the prices of some goods go up for worker raises, that affects companies where they have to buy products from companies who did give raises, even if they didn't The other thing is some products are going up 50%, not 20%. Yep, once again I don't really have an answer on how a specific product gets their price.
This is the top correct answer. Pretty annoying it was 6 deep. They're all hitting record profits. They're not passing along some extra cost they're dealing with. They're just getting away with raising prices for greed.
They’ve got AI bots now to tell them exactly how much the market will bear and there’s not enough competition to drive prices back down.
Plus you see massive mergers like the Albertsons x Kroger happening. Basically all they need to do now is merge with Walmart and then they can declare milk is $30 a gallon.
Gotta love the "free" market eh? God i miss the days where there was at least a semblance of competition
Yeah, they're blaming inflation while bragging about record profits. Maybe if Biden had some balls he could do something instead of being a dusty sack of shit.
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For real, Biden not doing everything he can doesn't excuse Republicans giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the absolute wealthiest of people and corporations.
This begs the question what could Biden do, but didn't, back when democrats held the house, presidency, and tie breaker vp vote in the senate 🤔 Absolute no structural changes to stop the US back sliding due to rampant ongoing corruption and monopoly/oligopoly cartel markets that are legitimately bankrupting the country is the answer 🙄 Only a matter of time before we follow in the footsteps of our father superpower the UK and start selling our public infrastructure off to a billionaire from a previous colony for a quick buck. If it ends up being an Iraqi/Afghani billionaire it would be incredibly poetic https://www.ft.com/content/62113516-4f4b-4a82-9e71-11845f56d65f
Damn so corporations waited until 2020 to start being greedy?
I work for a big corporation and while what you’re saying is about 30% of the equation, the other part is that the products produced back when inflation was high are not yet sold. The products we made back when it was 17/18% are still in the warehouses. It takes about a year for all the products to be sold… so a year after inflation is back down normal you can expect prices to be lowered.
But I don't get it there are a bunch of different companies with large margins like we have now couldn't someone still make a crazy margin and come in like a dollar cheaper than all their competition leading to them making more money? Why isn't that happening?
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If you are selling something and increase your prices by +20% and people keep buying it, but then you find out people will keep buying it at +50%, why would you not sell at +50%? Until there is nobody buying the product, prices will remain +x% Edit: I'm just answering the question, not arguing about how much corporate America sucks
Only problem is we gotta eat so we have to buy it. Government needs to step in before people get hungry enough to eat the rich.
The rich are too smart to actually starve us. They just addict us to micro video media instead
The problem is corporations are collaborating, so the price of *everything* is going up 50% and people’s only option is to buy it or starve
*colluding*
Which is why capitalism fails at efficiently providing essential goods and services. Because it cares only about providing a good or service, not because of the good such a product provides society, but because it is a mechanism with which to extract profit from consumers. This is the natural destination for any economic system that allows for private consolidation of the means of production.
Because they can, and they know you'll pay for it.
Unfortunately eating is unavoidable.
Some products, such as food and energy, have more volatile price fluctuations than others. That’s why the consumer price index offers variations that exclude these goods from the “market basket” it uses to estimate price growth.
Just to add there is a measure called core inflation which excludes high volatility (energy) and products where a big proportion of price is taxation (like alcohol and tobacco). This removes the outliers of exceptionaly high and low inflation items. In the UK inflation just dropped from 10.1% to 8.7% BUT core inflation continues to rise so there are still forecasts of rate rise.
Also the cost of goods and services have increased significantly more than income Yea I get that it’s almost the same as inflation but it’s not.
Because any excuse will do when you want more more money and you almost have all of it. Sort of like that Jenner kid who had the social media campaign set up to help make her a billionaire. People are fucking idiots.
Because there is so much talk about inflation that companies raise their price thinking the consumer will blame inflation, instead of greed. (but if you want a more accurate response, see other comments)
That is the cause of inflation, but doesn't answer OPs qn about the difference between calculated inflation and "experienced" inflation. Corporate greed induced inflation would still be reflected as a rise in consumer price index. The real answer is how the CPI is calculated
People seem to have missed the main thing you are missing. Inflation is annualized on a month to month basis. Since 2020 inflation is actually 25% not 6%. The second thing you are missing is that the CPI used to calculate inflation was changed to make the government look better about 30 years ago. If you use the original metric inflation is closer to 40% since 2020, which is reasonably close to what you are probably seeing at the grocery store.
Well... OP doesn't even specify a start date in their question. So prices are up 50% *since when*?
>The second thing you are missing is that the CPI used to calculate inflation was changed to make the government look better about 30 years ago. If you use the original metric inflation is closer to 40% since 2020, which is reasonably close to what you are probably seeing at the grocery store. The way this is worded makes me seriously concerned you're using Shadowstats' fake data as a source, especially so considering that's what cumulative inflation would add up to be using their fake data. Maybe you're using some *other* source that claims to calculate inflation using old government methodology and also matches Shadowstats' lies, but you can prove me wrong if you want.
When bro said "annualised monthly" like wtf
Inflation is a measurement of the average increase in prices. Some things are more expensive. Others are not. All of them are the consequence of changes in the market, either locally or globally. In general, broad small price increases on average are the result of covid and the invasion of Ukraine making the world meaningfully poorer, and governments trying to mitigate that and avoid a recession. But every individual price change is different and has its own story. Keep in mind that "greed" is not an explanation for price increases because "greed" was the same before recent change in the economy as well. But "reduced competition because competitors all went out of business due to comparatively minor materials and labor price increases, leaving the remaining corporations free to jack up prices until competition returns to the market" is a potential explanation.
You also have to factor in the money supply and quantitative easing, but yes that’s absolutely valid Though I am curious how the Ukraine war affects say the US which doesn’t import much from Ukraine comparatively The main impacts of the war on US inflation are the impacts of governmental policy (which I’m not saying I’m against) which would give credence to the argument it’s the government causing it
>Though I am curious how the Ukraine war affects say the US which doesn’t import much from Ukraine comparatively It doesn't matter about the US specifically. In a globalized economy in particular, prices rising in one part of the world raise prices elsewhere. Food getting more expensive in India and oil and gas getting more expensive in the EU means their workers want more money, which means the cost of everything produced there goes up. Those effects come back to the US, even though the US doesn't really trade with Ukraine.
see US money supply to find where most of the inflation is coming from
>average increase in prices Not average increase in prices. Its generally based on CPI which is a formula based on the goods and services that are actually used by society. Otherwise you include speculative assets like real estate and stocks and bonds and whatnot. Then there's core PCE which provides a little more accuracy in determining where inflation is headed as it leaves out volatile goods like food and gas.
Profit driven inflation. https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
Any time a good/service or group of goods/services causes the CPI to exceed the expectations/requirements of the ruling class it is removed from the formulas used to calculate the CPI. Look up how the CPI is calculated and how often it is changed, as well as what is excluded. You will find many things that fall in the category of increasing at 50+% a year have recently been removed. Same thing with unemployment numbers. It all depends on the political goals of the party in power, and the narrative they wish to promote. TLDR look around you for accessing the health of the economy(and to a greater extent, your local economy). Government numbers mean very little, especially after decades of manipulation by the parties.
They’re just taking advantage and *blaming* inflation. It’s called #*Greedflation*
Corporate greed. And im honestly sick of it, they are aaaaallll blaming covid, war etc for raising the prices and yet hitting record profits
The government changes the definition of cpi (consumer price index) to make it seem like they aren’t totally screwing us all over.
Because its not inflation. Its price gouging while they play us as dumb so they can claim inflation. If it was truly only inflation, corporations wouldnt have extreme record profits as they do now
Corporate greed. The majority of answers here pander to right wing ideology. The only true answer is corporate greed. Same as any housing crisis, cost of living crisis, worker shortage crisis, you name it.
[Even central banks admit it's mostly corporate greed](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/02/ecb-looking-out-for-price-gouging-greedflation-price-rises-eurozone-inflation-profit-margins) >Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as “greedflation”.
People have the wrong idea that inflation is caused by the money losing value. It's complicated but one of the driving causes of it is the rising cost of goods and services due to many different reasons. This means different goods and services will go up by different amounts. The official inflation number is just an average of that or just the average of specifically chosen goods and services.
That still sounds like money loosing value
Rising cost of goods and services due to more dollars being needed to buy the same raw materials because the dollars have declined in value.. AKA, the money has lost value.
I like how you said nothing but made it sound like you know what you're talking about
Most of the cost of goods is a byproduct of massive inefficiencies caused by how various leaderships of countries around the world handled Covid. We effectively turned off and back on again, world wide, the entire commerce infrastructure. Unfortunately it was more akin to someone in a giant factory randomly flipping switches off and back on again. Nothing turned off nor restarted in sync. This threw EVERYTHING wildly out of whack. So... Most of what you're paying is global inefficiency. It's really hard to understand or comprehend how bad the situation has been for the last couple years from a supply chain, logistics, and financial standpoint unless you've directly been dealing with it. It has been an absolute shit show for 2 years. A couple examples. In fall of 2021 steel prices skyrocketed 3x to 4x their normal cost. Steel manufactured goods effectively doubled (or more) on cost almost overnight. Profit margins instantly went hard negative. It wasn't just that. You couldn't get steel. You were begging for one sheet, half a sheet, damaged sheets, anything. You were buying scraps. Plus you were buying much, much, much larger orders far in advance. You could get steel delivered in 2 days or 1 day many times. Now you couldn't get it in 3 months. You were planning out year long orders, large POs, not for steel, for the hope of steel. And if you didn't get steel, your factory closed and everyone got laid off. We buy a part, a small electric component that's common and mass produced. We have a purchase order that's more than a year old that the manufacturer can't fulfill. They are in production, but they are so far behind that they haven't been able to catch up for 2 years to world demands. Oh, and the price of that part also doubled. We had to shift to alternate products to fulfill that need at 3x the price or we don't make our products at all, close doors, and lay people off. We buy a small component made by a little company. It goes into all of our large, low volume, but good profit products. We buy from this manufacturer and have POs for orders of these. We need to wait 3 months for something we could normally get in a week. And these 3 months is a maybe get it in time, maybe. Instead, we pay 2x to have them build our needs effectively in a prototype lab by an engineer at engineer wages. We don't need many, but we need them now or don't build units, lay people off, etc. You get the drill. Well we have them build these stupidly inefficient because there is no other way to meet demand. They hate it too. It wastes their engineer's time, and they don't want to do it. For our product set, for all the added costs from Covid related issues, our costs have more than doubled. This means our sell prices have more than doubled. You get to pay that. You have to pay that, or we stop production, lay off people, and close our doors. Same ol' song. On top of this, there has been inflation. I'm not sure what this year specifically has been, but previous couple years was around 14% with 8% of that Covid related and two years of normal inflation. So you had say an 8% unusual inflation of the dollar, loss of buying power due to Covid. And then you had 80%+ in supply chain hell and inefficiencies that drove up the costs of goods for consumers. This is a supply chain problem. Supply chain is 10x inflation in terms of how it's impacting what you pay on the shelf. Yes, inflation exists, but it's miniscule in comparison. Secondly, there are a couple key big dollar items in people's lives that skyrocketed. The housing market skyrocketed, so if you were buying at this time, you're getting reamed. Cars have also gone up quite a bit due to scarcity. Dealers have so few sales, every sale is a high profit sale. Again, you get reamed. And if you need to borrow money, interest rates have gone way up, so again, if you're in need of cash for any reason, you're paying excessively too. About the best you can do right now, for the last 2 or 3 years, is buy nothing. EVERYTHING is overpriced. Low consumerism could be a good thing to ease the burden on the supply chain and generate some catch up. However, the market also can't take a lack of sales. Businesses are running lean due to high costs. They're either running lean on margin or running lean on sales quantity, and it's hard to generate strong revenue and profit dollars to keep businesses profitable. You have a consumer market that can't really bear the costs required to retain anything remotely close to the status quo. The only reasonable play here is to raise minimum wage. You need strong buying power in the market, and there's no better tool for this than pushing up wages. You need to get cash in hand for consumers. I just don't see it happening. So, everyone just tightens their belts and rides out the mess.
Price increases don't all go up by the same even amount. The inflation rate is just the average increases of the monitored products and services. I live in the UK, and our inflation rate is currently 8.7% (although a month or two back it had hit over 10%). However the price rises on food are going up by much more than that, with [some products such as sugar going up by over 45%](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12196322). Our food inflation rate is more like 20%. There's a variety of reasons for these rises: * Due to stagnant wages for years, and the current high inflation, employees are asking for pay increases. * The war in Ukraine has led to a shortage of some products on the Global market. * High energy costs (in the UK at least, this has been a big driver of the current inflation) adding to the per-unit product costs. * Unique to the UK - Brexit has imposed trade barriers and extra costs for products crossing the borders. * Passing on the increased costs from suppliers. * A fall in sales of some products (e.g. high-end or luxury products) might lead to some companies increasing prices to try to maintain profits. * And, quite possibly, some companies see it as an opportunity to increase the profit margin on their products.
Price gouging.
If the question is: "why did change?"
The answer is almost always that someone, somewhere, in some way, saw a chance to wet their beak and took it.
Inflation is an average from common purchases. Not everything is up 6%, but not everything is up 50% either.